Motion of a Single Domain Wall in a Parasitic Ferromagnet YFeO₃

Abstract

The domain wall motion in a single crystal of a parasitic ferromagnet YFeO 3 was investigated. It was found by powder pattern method that a single domain wall exists in a parallelepiped specimen of the dimension 0.6×1.2×5.6 mm 3 . The wall velocity was measured by driving the wall by a rectangular pulse fiield in a temperature range between 77°K and room temperature. At low driving fields, the velocity depends linearly upon the applied field. The order of magnitude of the damping parameter of the wall motion is almost the same as that of usual ferrimagnetic oxides. The damping parameter decreases monotonically with an increase of temperature. It was observed that a pick-up signal at low temperatures rises with time with a constant slope. This peculiar phenomenon is explained by assuming that the wall is trapped by small defects and gets over the potential barriers by thermal activation under the influence of the applied field.